Officials from Venezuela and Massachusetts have signed an agreement to provide thousands of low-income residents with discounted home heating oil this winter.
Oil will be provided at 40 per cent below market prices and will be distributed by non-profit organisations.
The agreement gives President Hugo Chavez's government standing as a provider of heating assistance to poor US residents at a time when US oil companies have been reluctant to do so and Congress has failed to expand aid in response to rising oil prices.
US Congressman William Delahunt described the move as a "an expression of humanitarianism at its very best".
Massachusetts will have more than 12 million gallons of discounted heating oil available to it over the next four months, starting in December.
Two nonprofit organisations will screen recipients for financial need and cooperate with oil distributors that will make discounted deliveries to qualifying homes and institutions, such as homeless shelters and hospitals.
Chavez proposed offering fuel directly to poor US communities during a visit to Cuba in August. He has said the aim is to bypass middlemen to reduce costs for the American poor - a group he argues has been severely neglected by Bush's government.
During a short-lived 2002 coup against Chavez, the US government promptly recognized the new leaders, who were soon driven out amid a popular uprising.